1. Vietnam Conflict Paper Topics

2. Vietnam Background 1945-46 First Indochina War 1947: Truman Doctrine 1949: Nuclear Arms race 1954: North and South Vietnam were established

3. The Vietnam War Second Indochina War U.S. was officially involved from 1964-5 until their official withdrawal in 1973. The war ended in 1975 with the military conquest of the South by the North. http://www.history.com/shows/vietnam-in-hd/videos/arriving-in- vietnam?m=5189719baf036&s=All&f=1&free=false

4. New Types of Warfare Guerilla warfare Tunnels “Humping the Boonies” Lack of Discipline Women’s role in combat

5. Chemical Warfare Agent Orange Napalm

6. Vietnam Conflict Villagers’ Roles My Lai Massacre: March of 1968 War Crimes

7. Coverage and Contact Vietnam was really the first television war. It’s also been called the first “living-room war” "Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America--not on the battlefields of Vietnam." --Marshall McLuhan, 1975 War Letters From Vietnam

8. Domestic and International Politics Watergate and Nixon Pentagon Papers The Cold War Imperialism

9. War Protests in the United States Burning Draft Cards and Draft Dodging Kent State 1970 Protest Music

10. Soldiers’ Homecoming Celebrating Veterans = Celebrating War. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder http://www.history.com/shows/vietnam-in-hd/videos/coming-home

11. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Designed by Maya Lin and dedicated in 1982 Jury called it a “place of healing” and a “memorial of our own time.” Veterans and others demanded a second memorial.

12. Writing About the War Postmodernism Nihilism

13. Tim O’Brien Born 1946 in Minnesota/ Drafted 1968/ Served 1969-1970 Father served in WWII and had published articles about his experiences at Iwo Jima and other battles Stationed in the infantry group responsible for the My Lai massacres, less than a year after they occurred Started Harvard, left to become a journalist and writer Teaches creative writing at Southwest Texas State University

14. The Things They Carried Finalist Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award 1990 Collection of vignettes: narrator named Tim O’Brien with same biography as the author Tim O’Brien Storytelling is the topic as much as war, letting the reader in on the game of writing, using the form of a memoir Setting of war raises the stakes of any human conflict

15. Questions to Consider: How do Tim O’Brien’s voice and style add to the themes of his book? O’Brien dissects the word truth and isn’t sure anyone can ever tell a true war story. Does he get closer or further away than writers like Hemingway, Canfield, and Ozick? O’Brien’s subject matter that is appalling, and his details are sometimes appalling. How does he bring his readers into these situations without losing them? Or does he lose them? What are his arguments? Can language capture war?